@jenni Haha, well it all started when I was feeling sleepy one morning last week...sunny.garden/@thegiddystitcher…

Yeah it's been a bit sudden. I'm still figuring out what I want to focus on, but luckily these used collections tend to be extremely cheap to experiment with :D

Michelle / The Giddy Stitcher

2026-02-11 08:49:31

Get no sleep, decide to cheer myself up by finally looking at #Postcrossing to see what all the fuss is about.

Source some nice postcards that aren't too pricey.

Find out about the extortionate international postage cost from the UK that makes it a non-starter.

Be sad.

End up down rabbithole of the discounted stamp market.

Oh no. Now I kind of want to collect #stamps.

@hobbs Completely depends, some people like to collect mint condition and some prefer ones that have been through the postal system. Think I prefer the latter.

Generally mint is worth more, if that's a collector's motivation, but not always (example: more modern stamps in the era of people not really using stamps, those can be more valuable if they were genuinely used).

I've been into this hobby for all of a week and have learned a lot 😁

@ScubaET Thanks that's really kind of you! Right now I'm being distracted in a thousand different directions with it so the only things I'm definitely 100% collecting are sloths and fibre crafts.

Maybe once I've got this big haul catalogued we can compare and swap interesting bits :D

sure let me know! I have to repay you a bit for my enabling comments, but happy to see you have no regrets 😉

It was fun to do this for my stamp collecting colleague who had an interesting wishlist:
* Everything from the Netherlands (he did not grow up here)
* Anything chess
* Olympics related but only from the organizing country (so not to honour an athlete or something)

@ScubaET Interesting! I've seen lots of people collecting by country but that seems like too big a goal for now. I saw someone making a collection of cows facing left, which is hilariously specific.

Don't think you're entirely forgiven, mind. My entire craft budget for February went on postcards and stamps instead ;)

cows facing left, brilliant!

But you also had some nice new yarn! I really liked the white with black dots one, wondering how that would look with crochet (I cannot knit)

Overall I'm excited to see you back to crafting 🥰

@ScubaET Had gift card, doesn't count 😂

(thank you, I am glad to be back at it too)

It is *so pleasingly clacky*. Even the minimal beginner kit I tried which only had one kind of softwood bobbin and no beads.

I can’t think of a word for that light pleasant clatter. It’s like susurrus but made of discrete noises.

@thegiddystitcher

"Pleasantly clacky" is a superb description of it.

Also there are more stamps.

Where do you people get kits, I can't even find a book of "how to"... I saw an old woman once long ago who did it in Slovakia, we all wanted to try it (was on a school trip), but couldn't find anything to start with.

Edit: I'm pretty sure I could diy the parts for it, just, I need to some instructions on the actual lace making. Why is there no book?

@AdamOnza Hah, yeah you can never be quite sure with these kits. Usually I'm resourceful enough to figure it out myself if they're crap, though.

(that PTSD dog meme, except it's me and my first macrame kit)